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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

Guthrie Family Cleared As Suspects In Nancy's Disappearance; Nuclear Talks Expected To Begin In Geneva On Tuesday; One on One with "REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER" Host Bill Maher; Oscar Winning Actor Robert Duvall Dies at 95; Poland's Pierogi Mascot is a Fan Favorite at Winter Olympics. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired February 17, 2026 - 01:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[01:00:00]

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: They'll give children red envelopes filled with cash to wish them good luck and ward off evil spirits in the New Year.

And check this out. To kick off the New Year, China showed off humanoid robots performing kung fu. Wow. These robots wielded swords and nunchucks in perfect fight sequences and even flipped across the stage.

I don't know what I think about that. In just a few moments, we'll take you live to Beijing where they are already celebrating the lunar New Year as part of the next hour of The Story Is, which starts right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles. The Story Is with Elex Michaelson.

MICHAELSON: And welcome to The Story Is. I'm Elex Michaelson. Ahead this hour, we'll take you to a talk about a high stakes day for Iran, the loss of Robert Duvall and my sit down with Bill Maher.

But our top story is the search for the missing 84-year-old mother of "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie. On Monday, Arizona's Pima County sheriff officially cleared all of Nancy Guthrie's family members as possible suspects in her disappearance. This after a wave of baseless claims online suggested that her family was somehow involved. That announcement comes more than two weeks after Nancy was believed to have been abducted. At this time, the police there are still no suspects named her investigation.

The FBI said it is now awaiting final DNA test results from a glove recovered about two miles from Guthrie's home. The agency says the glove appears to match those worn by the person who was seen on doorbell camera footage approaching Guthrie's home on February 1st. Nancy was reported missing just hours after this video was captured.

President Trump now threatening those responsible with the most severe federal penalties if Guthrie has not returned safely. On Sunday, Savannah Guthrie appeared to address her mother's alleged abductor directly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, DAUGHTER OF NANCY GUTHRIE/"TODAY" SHOW HOST: To whoever has her or knows where she is, that it's never too late and you're not lost or alone. And it is never too late to do the right thing. And we are here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Want to bring in live now a neighbor of Nancy Guthrie's who is in Pima County, Arizona to dive deeper into all of this. Jeff Lamie, welcome to The Story Is for the first time.

JEFF LAMIE, NANCY GUTHRIE'S NEIGHBOR: Thank you.

MICHAELSON: What do you make of today's news that the Guthrie's are all cleared?

LAMIE: Well, we're just hoping for our neighbor's safe return. We've had hope on other occasions. We hope for another breakthrough after this and as the investigation continues that we continue to be hopeful in that regard.

MICHAELSON: How has this changed your neighborhood? I know you say it's brought you closer.

LAMIE: Yes. Yes, it has it's, of course, it's a very quiet neighborhood. It's a beautiful neighborhood. It's very serene. It's been unusual to have drones, helicopters, media, et cetera.

But people realize that, you know, legitimate, respectful media helps this, keep it in people's minds, awareness. Obviously, the investigation is critical. People are very supportive of this and also deeply concerned about someone who lived in our neighborhood. You may have seen the ribbons that, the yellow ribbons that are being placed. I think people talking to each other, just coming together thoughts about maybe reaching out to neighbors.

You know, we have large lots, and I think we all live in our silos, so to speak. We sort of live online and live virtually. And I think that there's a lot of conversation occurring to our neighbors to say if you -- if you want to reach out, if some folks live alone, you know, if we're available to you. And I think this has been a very, very dark cloud. But there is a silver lining that has come from this, and I think that absolutely is occurring.

MICHAELSON: You said respectful, legitimate journalists help. How much of that are you seeing and how much are you seeing the other? And that's got to be frustrating to see some of that.

LAMIE: Well, you know -- you know, it's -- there is a large volume of media here. And, you know, across the board, you know, once again, awareness keeps us in people's minds. The next great break may -- someone's memory may be jogged. There may be some information provided because someone sees a story. We all see that. We all value that. And I think our -- despite the disruption, people look beyond that and realize there is a great value to that. And we really hope, you know, just to be respectful to the family, to -- for folks to, as they approach the story, to be -- to be respectful.

[01:05:15]

MICHAELSON: Yes. So much has been made about this as like a true crime story. A lot of it is made about the fact that Nancy Guthrie was Savannah Guthrie's mother. But what was Nancy Guthrie like, just as a neighbor? What was she like to the community?

LAMIE: You know, many folks, ourselves included, and we've lived here six years, there have been folks who've lived here for decades who didn't know that her mother -- that she was a mother of a major media figure. She was a person who lived in a neighborhood. We did not know her well, was the person we greeted when walking the dog. We -- she had a dog at one time herself, would see her out and about in her front yard. She was a person a few doors down who was lived her life here and was part of the community.

And that's why it's so shocking across the board that this has occurred. And we really just uniformly and collectively truly are hoping that there can be a positive outcome and that the next breakthrough leads to some sort of closure and truly, of course, the hope for a positive outcome.

MICHAELSON: And lastly, I mean, there's so many theories. What do you think happened here? What do your neighbors think happened?

LAMIE: In our role, as I said, this is a very safe neighborhood. You know, this is -- was truly unusual. People in the summer when it's hot and will jog at 11:00 at night or walk their dogs at 11:00 at night. I mean, this was a very unusual, shocking occurrence. From my vantage point, I cannot say, you know, we -- as we've spoken, we're leaving that of course, to the investigators and support the investigators. People have shared their ring videos, they've allowed access to their -- collectively to their -- to their yards, to their homes, have communicated any information that they may have.

And unfortunately, at this juncture, we're not at a point where that has been -- has been helpful.

MICHAELSON: Well, Jeff, thank you for joining us tonight at 11:00 at night.

LAMIE: Sure.

MICHAELSON: We appreciate your perspective and we hope your neighbor is brought home soon.

LAMIE: Sure. Absolutely. We all do. Thanks so much.

MICHAELSON: I know a big story happening overseas. U.S. and Iranian negotiators are preparing to hold nuclear talks in Geneva in the next few hours. Iran's foreign minister is expected to be there, as well as U.S. Special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump's son in law, Jared Kushner. President Trump says he's going to play an indirect role in the talks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'll be involved in those talks indirectly and they'll be very important and we'll see what can happen. It's been typically, Iran's a very tough negotiator. They're good to negotiators or bad nego -- I would say they're bad negotiators because we could have had a deal instead of sending the B2s in to knock out their nuclear potential and we had to send the B2s. I hope -- I hope they're going to be more reasonable. They want to make a deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: The U.S. military has been building up air and naval assets in the Middle East ahead of those talks. The U.S. is already moving a second aircraft carrier strike group to the region. Sources tell CNN that air Force assets, including refueling tankers and fighter jets are also being moved there. Multiple sources say it is a direct attempt to intimidate Tehran and to give the Trump administration options to strike inside Iran if nuclear negotiations fail.

Iran is also projecting its own military message. State media released new propaganda video showing military drills in the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham says that regime change in Iran is the, quote, "best answer." He met with the prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, just one day ahead of the Iran talks. U.S. lawmaker says the U.S. and Israel have, quote, "the capability to deliver a decisive blow to the Iranian regime." Graham also said President Trump should follow through on his promise to strike the Islamic regime over its brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters.

And if the talks fail, then a military strike is the other option.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): There are two lines in the water right now. One's a diplomatic line trying to find a way to end this regime diplomatically that will advance our national security interest. The other line is the military option. I think President Trump is looking for which line can catch the biggest fish. The bottom line is we're into weeks, not months, in terms of decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[01:10:03]

MICHAELSON: Benjamin Radd is a political scientist and senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center. He joins me live now from Washington.

Ben, thanks so much for staying up late with us. We appreciate it.

BENJAMIN RADD, SENIOR FELLOW, UCLA BURKLE CENTER: Absolutely. Always a pleasure.

MICHAELSON: We know that there haven't been a lot of wars that Lindsey Graham has said let's not do, but what do you think are the stakes for this particular meeting?

RADD: Well, the Iranian officials have said that they are looking at the nuclear issue being the sole issue that is up for negotiation. They've maintained a red line on the other points that President Trump has wanted, which is Iran's ballistic missile program, a critical part of Iran's defense, which we saw failed to effectively defend the country last summer. Nevertheless, it's still crucial for deterrence and then also the support of proxy groups in the region. The Iranians have said those two last parts are off the table, that the nuclear element is the one issue they're willing to discuss. So the stakes for them are limited and confined to that.

Now, what that means for the Americans remains to be seen.

MICHAELSON: Yes. I mean, could that be a deal that President Trump accepts? We've seen situations like Greenland where the president basically accept the status quo and called it a win. Could he, say, do the same thing here?

RADD: Well, the president's gone back and forth on this. He has maintained that he wants a deal to be comprehensive. He wants what he said, all of it, everything. And he criticized President Obama in his negotiation of the original Iran deal, the JCPOA, for really not addressing all these elements for the long term. So to see him revert back to a deal that doesn't advance the U.S. position any further than the deal Obama had, I don't think would sit well with him.

So I anticipate that this is where the impasse will happen and most likely -- looks like that's where it will be.

MICHAELSON: So when you were with us on set next to me a few weeks ago, you suggested that you thought that there was going to be a U.S. attack on Iran that weekend. Obviously that didn't happen. Didn't happen this past weekend when some people thought it was going to happen. Are you surprised that there hasn't been an attack yet?

RADD: Well, yes and no. I still think an attack is imminent. And I think the reason that we didn't see it at the time that we did, in part, President Trump tends to go with whomever -- whichever adviser last has his ear and basically convinces him one way or the other. We know that there are pressure from both the Israelis, from Gulf States, from other allies in the region to not proceed at that time. We're now in the middle of the Winter Olympic Games.

There's that element. And the next two days mark a critical anniversary. Those are the 40th days from the original days of the massacre going back to February -- excuse me, January 8th and 9th. And under Iranian Shia tradition, those are very important symbolic days of mourning. They've been used -- they were using the '79 revolution to great effect.

And it's something that the regime is aware of. And we've now seen some social media video indicating that Iranians have taken to these -- today and tomorrow to really begin launching, you know, muted protests, but protests nonetheless. So I think those are important elements to consider. And we need to wait for the games to finish, I think, before the U.S. is willing to conduct a strike of the kind that we last spoke about.

MICHAELSON: And of course, that strike could be avoided if there's a deal. So lastly, what do you think a potential deal would look like?

RADD: It would have to have zero uranium enrichment on Iranian soil. All of it would have to be done off site. The Iranians provide it with whatever they need for domestic energy purposes, for medical use. It would have to contain or if not eliminate Iran's ballistic missile development, which Iran says it needs for its national defense and is its right to do so. And the deal has to put some limits on Iran's ability to create problems abroad, interference with international relations with U.S. relations with allies, with the safety and security of U.S. allies.

So that means the proxy groups. A deal has to include some of those three areas in some way. It's really difficult to see what that will look like.

MICHAELSON: It'll be interesting to figure that out and we'll see what happens in the coming hours in this high stakes negotiation. Benjamin Radd from the University of California, Los Angeles, thank you for joining us tonight from Washington. We appreciate it.

RADD: Thank you, Elex.

MICHAELSON: And back here in Los Angeles, we're just hours away from the Lunar New Year countdown, joining billions around the world as they enter the Year of the Horse. Celebrations already underway in Beijing. Our Mike Valerio is at the heart of one of the city's largest New Year's celebration, where it's the middle of the afternoon and Mike is feeling very festive.

Mike, what are you seeing and what are you wearing?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Well, Xin Nian, Kuai Le, Elex, what we are wearing, what I'm wearing, and a couple people throughout the crowd, this is an homage to the 16th century literary folk hero in China of the Monkey King, of course. So we wear hats like these for bringing in good, positive energy into the new year, which, of course, is the year of the Fire Horse.

[01:15:10]

This and many other delicious temple snacks. You can get melted sugar and the beautiful shape of a fire horse.

But let's just give you a sense of the crowd. You know, Elex, this place is about 1.5 times the size of the footprint of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. And over the next couple days, a million people are expected to pack into this park. It's Ditan Park, which gives you a sense of the great migration. A lot of conventional wisdom is that, you know, in the megacities of China, people clear out.

However, there are still people in Beijing, myriad tourists who come to this place. And if we sort of pan on over this way, this is the altar that is centuries old. Ditan in Mandarin Chinese means earth altar. So it's such an extraordinary contrast, Elex, to see all the members of the public here in Beijing and parts across China converging on this place when a couple centuries ago, from the Ming Dynasty this used to be where the emperors would come to give offerings to the earth god for the prosperity of the empire in the new year, for a good harvest, for essentially the prosperity of the earth, since this is the earth altar and earth temple. But look what we have, toys, decorations, tons of temple food.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

VALERIO: This temple fair, this fair that we're at for the start of Chinese New Year, happens to have the reputation of the best snacks in Beijing. So certainly glad to be here.

Xin Nian Kuai Le, to everybody back home in California watching. And on that note, Elex, send it back to you. Come here next year.

MICHAELSON: First off, I love all the people taking pictures of you as the star attraction at this particular event, but you got to tell us or show us what's the best food? What are you most enjoying eating?

VALERIO: So I hope we can get to food. Honestly, the best food are the meat skewers all the way over there. And, Elex, we may lose our signal if we go there and we try to part the red sea of people, but it's definitely the meat. I think that we got a wrap, but we could try to make our way through it.

Sorry, Excuse me. Let's run. I'm going to do it. This is CNN in Beijing. All right, hold on. Let's go.

Try to make it through. The meat is delicious. New roll is what we would call it. Beef. Roast beef.

Oh, so she's carrying a stick right there. It just got this guy. Yes, this guy is carrying one.

MICHAELSON: OK. There we go. There it is. There it is.

VALERIO: Try that. I don't think we're going to get through the crowd of people.

MICHAELSON: Let's show it with them. Let's show it with them.

VALERIO: Yes. OK. All right.

MICHAELSON: There we go.

VALERIO: There we go. This is what we're looking for. (FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (FOREIGN LANGUAGE). VALERIO: Oh, OK. Xiexie. Thank you so much. All right. So here we go.

And then this is the payoff.

MICHAELSON: Wow.

VALERIO: Oh, my God. OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

VALERIO: Xiexie. How true. Xiexie. Thank you so much. Incredible.

MICHAELSON: That is quite a payoff.

VALERIO: We'll FedEx one of these to you, Elex, I hope it keeps. But --

MICHAELSON: I appreciate your determination --

VALERIO: Yes, yes.

MICHAELSON: -- to part the red sea, which is quite a phrase considering where you're standing.

Mike Valerio, thank you so much. We appreciate it. Great stuff. And now he's frozen because it's so good.

All right. Still to come, Democrats have a new offer for the White House in the push to reopen the Department of Homeland Security. But is it enough to end the latest government shutdown? Here's a hint. No.

Plus, a look at what the tiny frog from South America had to do with the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny two years ago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:23:18]

MICHAELSON: Live picture from Washington, D.C. where it's 1:22 a.m. right now. There was some small movement on talks to reopen the Department of Homeland Security amid this partial government shutdown. Democrats have now sent a counteroffer to the White House on reforms they want to see in the DHS before agreeing to vote on funding. But the timeline and all this could drag on. Congress is in recess this week, which means they're literally not even there to vote if they come to an agreement.

And doesn't sound like lawmakers are too worried about that fact.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DAN GOLDMAN (D-NY): If the Republicans think that just because they have money for ICE and that it's OK not to pay TSA, not to pay Secret Service, not to pay the Coast Guard, then they're in for a difficult road in terms of the politics of this all, especially because they will be held accountable. REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): ICE is funded through 2028. And so there's really nothing here, no pressure to do something about ICE because ICE is funded. They're going to continue to do whatever it is they're doing right now. And so this whole thing about shutting down DHS to prove a point, I think it's political theater, to be honest with you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: President Trump says the partial government shutdown will not affect his plans for the State of the Union address next week, either. When asked if he would still give the annual address, he said, quote, "won't bother me." Speech is currently set for next Tuesday evening. CNN will, of course, carry it live.

President Trump is looking for results ahead of the next round of talks between the U.S., Russia and Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well, they're big talks. It's going to be very easy. I mean, it's look so far. Ukraine better come to the table fast. That's all I'm telling you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[01:25:07]

MICHAELSON: Negotiators are set to meet Tuesday and Wednesday in Geneva following talks in Abu Dhabi last month. Next week marks the four-year anniversary of Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll joining the U.S. delegation in Switzerland, which includes special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump's son in law, Jared Kushner.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Ukraine's president over the weekend and he talked about the Trump administration goals on Monday following a meeting with Hungary's prime minister in Budapest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The United States interest is to see the war end and we want to do what we can to make it end. We're the only nation on earth that apparently can get both sides to the table to talk. I'm not here to insult anybody, but the United Nations hasn't been able to do it.

We think it's a war that's incredibly damaging. We think it's a war that's incredibly destructive. We think it's a war that never should have happened and should end as soon as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Mourners across Russia are remembering opposition leader Alexei Navalny on the second anniversary of his death in prison. Navalny's mother and wife attended a gravesite memorial service in Moscow on Monday. Mourners also turned out at the Russian Embassy in Berlin. The anniversary comes as five European countries said in a joint statement that Navalny was killed by a lethal toxin found in poison dart frogs. Kremlin called the claims biased and unfounded. More now from CNN's Chief International Security Correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tiny, brightly colored, yet deadly and found in Ecuador or Peru. But 8,000 miles away in Siberia, the naturally occurring toxins of the South American Anthony dart frog were used to murderous effects by Russian authorities to kill President Vladimir Putin's leading irritant, opposition figure Alexei Navalny. That's according to an investigation by the U.K., Sweden, Germany, France and the Netherlands announced ahead of the second anniversary of Navalny's death. They said studies of samples from Navalny's body left them, quote, "confident the rare substance epibatidine killed Navalny" inside the IK3 prison in Harp, northern Siberia given by touch or injection and likely a synthetic version lab made, said an expert.

ALASTAIR HAY, ENVIRONMENTAL TOXIOLOGIST, LEEDS UNIVERSITY: Never have I come across anything to suggest it's been used to poison anybody deliberately. I think there's only one instance in the literature of a laboratory worker and having what was clearly a much smaller dose. It would have been made synthetically. The structure of this chemical has been known for some time. Epibatidine is so toxic that it's never been used clinically because doctors just can't take the risk.

YULIA NAVALNAYA, ALEXIE NAVALNY'S WIDOW: I think it will --

PATON WALSH (voice-over): An answer for his widow, yet still pain, she told Politico.

NAVALNAYA: It's difficult for me to say that it's good news, you know, because my husband was killed. And of course I knew that he was killed. He was very young man. I mean, he was less than 50.

PATON WALSH (voice-over): Moscow has form here several detailed Western investigations evidencing its use of exotic and savage poisons. In 2018, former Russian spy and defector Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned on his home's door handle by the Russian nerve agent Novichok. They survived, but an abandoned bottle discarded by the suspected Russian agents killed a passerby Dawn Sturgess.

Navalny himself narrowly survived Novichok being put in his underpants in 2020. You can hear his agony here on a visit to the Siberian city of Tomsk. He was later imprisoned after his return to Russia.

And in 2006, another Russian spy who defected, Alexander Litvinenko, was poisoned by polonium210 in his tea in an operation likely approved by Putin, a British inquiry concluded. The Kremlin has always strongly denied any involvement.

The Kremlin spokesman resolutely rejected the latest claims and called them negative, biased and unfounded.

Painful, imaginative and rare, the list of substances the Kremlin has been found to use on Russians it sees guilty of the highest crime turning on Putin's Russia.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: Still had more of my exclusive interview with Bill Maher. What he has to say about his dinner with President Trump and which Super Bowl music performance he watched.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:34:03]

MICHAELSON: More now on my exclusive interview with the host of "REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER", Bill Maher. It airs on HBO owned by CNN's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. This was taped on Friday before President Trump slammed Maher on social media over a critical segment on his show.

I asked Maher about their dinner from last year. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: Let's talk for a moment about your relationship with President Trump, which has been interesting over the years. Well- documented that you had this dinner with him at the White House, which you talked about, which people have, you know talked about. What's the nature of your relationship with him now? What's that like?

BILL MAHER, HOST, "REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER": Well -- ok. Well, first of all, the people who stop watching my show because I had dinner with them are idiots, in my view. They just are.

[01:34:54]

MAHER: They're just completely emotional because they're always asking the wrong question, which is like, how dare you have dinner with Donald Trump? The question should always have been, what did I say after I had dinner with Donald Trump?

Now if after I had dinner with Donald Trump, I came back to this show and was seduced by that dinner and stopped tearing a new one -- him a new one every week every time I thought he did something wrong, then you would have a case. That didn't happen.

MICHAELSON: Did not happen.

As somebody who watches the show every week, that did not happen.

MAHER: Right. That did not happen.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

MAHER: I also don't pause for making fun of the left when they are, in my view, crazy. But that doesn't.

MICHAELSON: And there's been plenty of examples.

MAHER: And there's plenty of examples of that. But I never stopped with Donald Trump. So I feel like we -- having met him and sat down for three hours, you know, it was a long dinner and the left got very mad at me for reporting it accurately, which is he's very different in person.

By the way, everyone who's ever met him says the same thing.

MICHAELSON: I would say the same thing as I met him several times.

MAHER: Right.

MICHAELSON: Yes. Ok.

MAHER: But -- and they just couldn't abide by this. But ok that's the truth. He met Mamdani, remember, the mayor of New York. He had been yelling and screaming at him, and then he had him to the Oval Office. I think he's a nice guy.

Like, don't you get it? He operates everything out of a personal relationship. You have to have a personal relationship.

Trust me, he's not upstairs at night reading the briefing books. That is not --

MICHAELSON: But he's watching your show.

MAHER: Accidentally, he watches it accidentally every week. I don't know how -- the remote, there's something wrong with it.

MICHAELSON: Yes. But you hear from him sometimes afterwards, right? Does he text you or --

MAHER: Yes. Yelling at me.

MICHAELSON: What does he say?

MAHER: It's still part of the lunatic left. I see, you know. You know, he watches. He gets it --

MICHAELSON: Yes.

MAHER: -- that I didn't change what -- he understood. But you know what? It's just better because then I can say something back and it becomes a conversation. And not just what it was. I mean, the whole reason why I was the apt person to go and visit him and have that dinner, it was sort of a Nixon to China thing.

I had so much credibility --

MICHAELSON: Right.

MAHER: -- for being so hard on him for so long. You know the first thing I did when I got to the Oval Office, I had him sign that list of 56 -- 56 different insults he had called me that we typed out on a piece of paper and he signed it and it's on my wall. It's my prized possession. Now.

But I felt like ok, we had done this for ten years, just this yelling at each other from across the barricades. It is better to talk to somebody. These people who think -- you should --

MICHAELSON: What's the -- what's the alternative?

MAHER: Exactly.

MICHAELSON: That we don't talk to each other. We have a civil war. What's the alternative?

MAHER: It's just purely emotional. It's just so disappointing that some of the people who I think of as rational people -- Donald Trump, he does a lot of stupid things. He also makes people stupid.

Like, again, what is the alternative? He's the president. You can't not talk to him. What is the downside? I'm going to elevate him. Oh my God, you mean he could become president?

MICHAELSON: Get a little more attention?

MAHER: It's silly. And when you do talk to him he does listen. That's what happened. He does listen. I'm not saying it's going to change him, but what I was trying to say afterwards, when I talked about it at the end of last season, is he needs more people like me talking to him, not less. All they do is complain about he's surrounded by all these sycophants and ask -- ok, then let's infiltrate some other people in there because I certainly wasn't when I talked to him. I was -- he was absolutely ok.

Any time I contradicted anything he said, at least he heard it.

MICHAELSON: Do you think the -- what's more annoying to you, the extreme left or the extreme right?

MAHER: The extreme right is more dangerous absolutely. They don't believe in democracy. They don't believe that -- in conceding elections. He's made that plain.

The climate thing we just talked about -- those are just two issues. There are -- there are others.

The left viscerally makes me often want to punch them more because they're just so often like -- so like anti-common sense. So they just insist on championing things that are really about them but they -- they have to feel like they're social justice warriors, you know.

They have to -- it's very important for them to feel like they're the good people. And by telling us that we're all bad, that's how they know they're good.

MICHAELSON: Right.

MAHER: And that just becomes kind of annoying.

MICHAELSON: And we sort of saw both examples with the Super Bowl halftime show where Kid Rock, who you had that dinner with, was doing his own show, and then Bad Bunny's doing his show. Which one did you watch and what did you make of that cultural moment for America?

MAHER: So funny. People were asking me the week before, which one are you going to watch? I said, I'm going to watch the real one, the regular one, like I do every year. And I'm going to honor it the same way by going to the bathroom.

[01:39:52]

MICHAELSON: Did you?

MAHER: Of course. You have to go to the bathroom at some point.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

MAHER: But I watched it I liked it, you know what? I didn't understand it. But like I said tonight in the show, I don't understand when Mick Jagger sings either.

I don't understand any rock star. They never -- nobody's really understandable. I didn't understand Kendrick Lamar very well either.

I mean, that's ok. It's just a feeling and, you know I said to, you know, I don't think he'd mind if I said this, but I did text with Kid Rock about it. And because I wanted to watch his too so I taped it.

And you know, I liked the song he sang. I said it was a good song. The content of it not my cup of tea. But, you know, I think he writes a great song. I'm a big fan of his music, I said.

But you know, the whole thing -- his whole show was very about Christian. It was a very big Christian. I said, wouldn't it have been a little more Christian to let Mr. Bunny have his moment? You know.

MICHAELSON: You said that to him.

MAHER: Yes.

MICHAELSON: And what did he say?

MAHER: We didn't -- he didn't -- I just said, next time we talk, we should talk about whether it would have been a little more Christian to let Mr. Bunny have his moment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: Our thanks to Bill Maher for sitting down with us on the set of "REAL TIME". You can watch "REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER" every Friday night at 10:00 p.m. Eastern on HBO, and then right here on CNN on Saturday nights at 8:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.

Thank you for watching THE STORY IS. For our international viewers, "WORLDSPORT" is next with lots of Olympic focus. For our viewers here in North America, I'll be right back with a look at a life well-lived. We honor Robert Duvall next.

[01:41:34]

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MICHAELSON: Authorities in Costa Rica are investigating the death of American surfer Kirk Van Dyke. The 66-year-old's body was found after an apparent robbery at his apartment on Saturday. Investigators say a woman who was with him suffered minor injuries when two men entered the residence, threatened them with a firearm, and then stole valuables.

Van Dyke, originally from Santa Cruz, California, is part of a well- known surfing family.

Oscar winning actor Robert Duvall has passed away at 95 years old. During a career that spanned six decades, Duvall became one of Hollywood's most respected character actors.

CNN's Danny Freeman has more on his life and legacy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a terrific story. We have newspaper people on the payroll, don't we, Tom?

They might like a story like that.

ROBERT DUVALL, OSCAR WINNING ACTOR: They might. They just might.

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Regarded as one of the most iconic actors of his generation, Robert Duvall had a knack for bringing to life a variety of compelling characters.

His debut on the big screen was playing Boo Radley in the 1962 film "To Kill a Mockingbird".

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Boo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ms. Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley.

GREGORY PECK, ACTOR: I can't believe he already knows you.

FREEMAN: Yet, it would be another decade before his big break in "The Godfather".

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tom, Tom, you are the consigliere now, you can talk to the Don. You can explain --

DUVALL: Just a minute. The Don is semi-retired, and Mike is in charge of the family business now. You have anything to say, say it to Mike now.

There was no movies I'd be on stage, but "Godfather" was kind of a catalyst for all the actors.

FREEMAN: Duvall went on to play a psychotic warmonger in "Apocalypse Now", delivering one of the most famous lines in film history.

DUVALL: I love the smell of napalm in the morning. Smells like victory.

Everybody relates to that line, I think, you know, in many places. And scenes like that, we had to get quickly, because all that fire in back of me was supposed to be the napalm, and sometimes that's the best stuff you can get.

FREEMAN (voice over): Duvall's role as a down and out alcoholic country singer in "Tender Mercies" won him his first Academy Award as Best Actor in 1984.

His natural ability to transform into these characters led to more than half a dozen Oscar nominations throughout his career.

DUVALL: It always has to come from yourself. The base is yourself. You turn that a certain way.

LARRY KING, FORMER CNN HOST: So, you are not impersonating someone.

DUVALL: No, no. No, it's -- you only have one temperament, one set of emotions, one psyche, one image. So, it's like you, in a certain way you become the character, but it's you doing it.

If you -- if you say, I'm going to become the character. I'm going to become the character like this, this, this, it becomes tense, becomes abstract. You lose contact with yourself.

FREEMAN: Duvall's talent went beyond just acting. He wrote, directed, and financed "The Apostle", playing the leading role of a Pentecostal preacher.

Duvall also had a penchant for dancing and singing, hobbies which made their way into many of his films.

But as successful as Duvall was professionally, his personal life was complicated. It took three failed marriages before he fell in love with actress Luciana Pedraza. The two shared the same birthday, January 5th, though she was more than 40 years his junior.

Born in 1931, Duvall was the son of an actress and a Navy admiral. His passion for the arts, acting, and life was evident until the end.

KING: Why do you like it?

DUVALL: I was like, playing house for big stakes. You know how kids play house? So, it's --

KING: So, it's child-like. DUVALL: Yes, yes. But it's fun, and maybe not as much as other professions, but we give a positive influence to society, hopefully.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[01:49:16]

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MICHAELSON: Let's talk Olympics. it's not just athletes turning heads at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Games.

CNN's Antonia Mortensen explains how a plush pierogi is now an unexpected star.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANTONIA MORTENSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At the 2026 Winter Olympics, Team Poland has an unexpected star. Not a skier, not a skater, but a smiling, pierogi-shaped plushy.

Polish pierogi are a well-known culinary delight all over the world, and now racing to fame is Pieroguszka.

Thank you so much for joining us. Can you introduce the mascot to us?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her name is Pierogini (ph), I guess right?

MORTENSEN: Pieroguszka.

MAGDALENA TASCHER, POLISH ICE SKATING FEDERATION: Pieroguszka, it was at first. This was the name that it was sold in the shops. But we asked our fans to think about the name and, yes and they have chosen Pierogini (ph).

MORTENSEN: And is she and is she keeping your team company throughout the -- throughout the event?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To make us more famous? Yes. To make us more famous, that's for sure.

[01:54:46]

MORTENSEN: The craze exploded when Poland's figure skating team, competing at the Olympics for the first time, celebrated their scores on camera with Pieroguszka.

Social media loved it. And soon so did celebrities. Even Snoop Dogg posted about the toys, sending demand through the roof.

And I read that you guys -- that you guys ran out of these very quickly because everybody wanted one.

TASCHER: Yes, we only had one at first, and really everyone was asking questions where to buy it, how to buy it. No, we don't sell them.

Now we have four of them so we need to really think carefully who gets one?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If Snoop Dogg wants one? Ok, we have for you.

TASCHER: Yes.

MORTENSEN: And Pieroguszka isn't the only fan favorite. The 2026 Winter Olympics official mascots, Tina and Milo, the adorable stoats have become so popular that they're almost impossible to buy now.

From a workshop in Katowice to the adorable mascots of the Winter Olympics, these games prove that sometimes the biggest stars can come in the fluffiest packages.

Antonio Mortensen, CNN -- Milan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: Our thanks to her. Those are very cute.

Thanks so much for joining us here on THE STORY IS.

Tomorrow, basketball legend Marcus Johnson will be here on set with me to talk sports and the Wooden Award which is coming up.

I'm Elex Michaelson. Thank you so much for watching. We'll see you tomorrow for more.

[01:56:13]

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